Macquarie Telecom Commissioned a 2013 NBN Study: Business Still Underprepared as NBN Becomes a Reality

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Business confidence remains strong, with increasing focus on teleworking.

The NBN will transform the way we communicate and inspire our audience.

Sydney, NSW (PRWEB)April 30, 2013

Although the majority expect the NBN to radically alter Australia’s competitive landscape, relatively few businesses are ready for its effects on their employees and market share, according to the NBN Business Readiness Survey in 2013 report conducted by Deloitte Access Economics and commissioned by Macquarie Telecom. The report found that although one in two organisations expect the NBN to change the way they do business, only one in four believe themselves ready for these changes.

“Similar to the first iteration of this report conducted in 2010, business expectations of the NBN’s transformative effects have remained strong, particularly as awareness grows around areas such as teleworking and multi-channel customer service,” said Dr. Ric Simes, Partner – Deloitte Access Economics. “Yet many organisations seem unsure of how they should update their business models to maintain growth and competitive edge in a geographically-unconstrained business environment, while some still haven’t considered its implications.”

Amongst these changes, widespread teleworking is now front-of-mind for many Australian organisations: 49% of businesses now expect the NBN to change where they are able to perform work compared to just 20% who expected a change in their employment model in 2010. However, only 26% of respondents were confident that their people managers could manage a remote workforce, the same number with a teleworking policy already in place.

“Universal access to superfast broadband is now a certainty for the Australian business landscape, yet around a quarter of businesses are still confused about whether they need to take action or not,” said Chris Greig, Group Executive – Telecommunications, Macquarie Telecom. “To not only survive, but carve out new markets and revenue streams in the future, organisations need to make the leap from passive expectancy to decisive action in preparing for the NBN’s organisational impact: there’s no room for ‘maybe’ at this pace of inevitable change.”

While more than 50% of organisations believe the NBN will change how they communicate with customers and clients, less than 20% feel ready to deliver multi-channel contact centres that will allow them to do so. And though one in every two organisations expects the NBN to change where industries can do business, less than 25% of businesses were convinced that its rollout would change where their customers were located.

“The NBN’s effects will not be limited to one or two industries, but will span the full gamut of products, services and human interactions – whether between workers and employers, or consumers and sellers – across Australia,” said Simes. “We’re looking at a seismic shift in the mindset needed for business success: in an economy with access to superfast bandwidth, quality of information and customer service will increasingly determine which organisations lead the market; which ones survive; and which ones face challenges.”

“The time for fence-sitting about the NBN’s effects is over; what’s needed now is urgency of planning and execution,” said Greig. “Businesses must make the NBN a matter of boardroom discussion and take immediate steps to ready their technologies and policies, partnering with IT service providers who support and understand the increasing convergence of telecommunications networks and data hosting in the next evolution of our digital economy.”

The NBN Business Readiness Survey in 2013 looked at responses from more than 160 Australian businesses across a wide range of industries, 25% of which came from C-suite executives, supplemented by case studies from three businesses.

Key Report Findings

The NBN is expected to boost telework significantly more than previously believed, but relatively few organisations feel ready to harness it in the workplace.

o 49% of respondents expect the NBN to change where they can perform work, more than double the 20% who expected a change in their employment model in 2010;
o 34% of businesses feel their systems and apps are ready for teleworking;
o 26% of businesses have a teleworking policy;
o 68% of businesses do not feel ready to manage a remote workforce.

More than half of all respondents expect the NBN to change how they communicate with suppliers and customers, but only 24% feel ready for these changes.

Business readiness for the NBN is still strong in some areas, with almost one in two respondents saying they feel prepared for new ways of doing business and 44% feeling ready to access more or different customers. However, readiness levels are still predominantly low.

More than half of all respondents believe themselves ready to use the NBN to expand operations to regional Australia.

Customer quotations

The NBN will transform the way we communicate and inspire our audience...(to) deliver much more exciting content much more quickly. – Paul Bogner, CIO, Beaumont Tiles.

The NBN will allow Webjet to provide a broader range of content than just the static content provided today, as the consumer will have a higher ability/propensity to consume. – Shelly Beasley, COO, Webjet

In the future we’ll be able to use voice over IP, or internet telephony. Even though technically we as a company can do it now, the internet infrastructure of the country doesn’t allow us to do it at a high enough quality for our clients. So the NBN really gives us the ability to start using a more flexible telephony solution. – Dan Turner, CEO, Unity4

About Macquarie Telecom
Macquarie Telecom is Australia’s number one integrated Managed Hosting, Cloud and Telecommunications Company. Working with and supporting some of Australia’s best-known organisations, Macquarie Telecom delivers a full range of Hosting, Data, Voice and Mobile services specifically to the business and government market. Macquarie Telecom is a full service hosting provider offering managed dedicated servers, managed colocation, and managed private, hybrid and public clouds. Macquarie Telecom’s offerings are underpinned by world-class customer care which is delivered by our fully owned and managed customer service centre, MacquarieHUB. Macquarie Telecom is best placed to help transition organisations to the new online NBN era.